RWC Partners has confirmed the launch of its long/short RWC Asia Absolute Alpha Fund managed by Garret Mallal.
The fund, which has been introduced on 6 May, resulted from the conversion of the RWC Global Innovation Absolute Alpha Fund, as a new fund within the RWC Ucits umbrella.
It follows a similar strategy to the team’s Cayman-domiciled Asia long/short fund, also managed by Mallal.
RWC’s long/short pan-Asia approach covers equities, as well as currencies and options.
Mallal joined RWC in April 2015 as a portfolio manager within James Johnstone and John Malloy’s emerging and frontier markets team, Johnstone and Malloy having previously been at Schroders and Barings respectively.
The team currently manages over $1.7bn (€1.5bn) in long-only and long/short emerging, frontier and Asia equity funds.
Dan Mannix, CEO of RWC Partners, commented : “There continues to be significant demand for long/short funds in Ucits but there is a lack of available funds in Asia.
“We believe that the next wave of funds will start to incorporate strategies that take on the more complex regions where one is dealing with a number of currencies, central banks and local economies. These are clearly essential components of managing an absolute return approach in Asia.”
“Since Garret launched the sister fund to Asia Absolute Alpha (the RWC Asia Opportunity Fund) it has made an absolute return of over 15%.
“The nature of the approach is that the market won’t always offer the opportunities it has over the last 12 months but the flexibility allows it to make returns in a variety of market conditions.”
RWC Partners managed $11bn (€9.74bn) in assets as at 31 May 2016.
